Reunited at Long Last

After years of painful separation, Father’s Day is now an occasion of joyous celebration for a reunited family.

Poe, his wife and son, and attorney Liz Balck from JFON West Michigan.

Poe was forced to leave his home in Burma due to persecution for belonging to a minority ethnic group. After enduring rampant human rights violations Poe ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand before coming to the United States, but without his wife and 11 year-old son. Unfortunately, his application to have his family join him was not properly prepared and was denied.

To reunite his family, Poe turned to JFON West Michigan for help. JFON attorney Liz Balck helped Poe file a new refugee relative application for his wife and son. She also worked with Bethany Christian Services and Church World Service to track the journey of Poe’s family from the refugee camp in Thailand to the U.S. Finally, after 2.5 years, Poe’s wife and son arrived in the U.S. as permanent residents.

Like Poe, many immigrant fathers make enormous sacrifices to be with their families. The JFON network is experiencing a high demand for legal assistance to help low-income immigrants navigate a complex and time-consuming process for uniting with their loved ones.

With your help, we can support JFON sites across the country in keeping families together. This is especially important as millions of immigrant parents and children become eligible to legally remain in the U.S. once President Obama’s Executive Action goes into effect. To serve these immigrant families we need to prepare now by recruiting immigration law attorneys, training volunteers to staff legal clinics, and educating immigrants about their rights.

Join us in demonstrating what it means to be a good neighbor:

Make a financial contribution to help immigrant fathers, like Poe, obtain legal assistance to be united with their families.

Share information with your network about how everyone wins when families stay together.

This Father’s Day, please consider making a donation to NJFON in honor of your father or loved one, or ask your children to do so for you in lieu of a gift. For the cost of a tie, you can sponsor an advice and counsel session for an immigrant father with an immigration attorney.

With your support we can increase the capacity of the JFON network to help immigrant fathers be with their children this Father’s Day and for years to come!